Teachers in Rhode Island currently maintain their certification by showing evidence of continuous professional development. Creating a personal PD plan is a unit-wide assignment in the School of Education for all student teachers. The steps below are designed to guide you through this process so that we can complete it efficiently.
Reflect on your teaching so far. Choose one area that you know you need to strengthen. Use this area to list 1-3 needs that might serve as
What is the need?
How will improvement help your students?
How will improvement help your school?
RIBT Standard/Element Addressed?
1.
classroom management
provide a safe and encouraging learning atmosphere
Requiring students to follow rules or face the consequences promotes a level of discipline students will get accustomed to. The correct classroom discipline holds students to a higher level of responsibility for their own work, learning and actions. By holding these students to such standards they will not only be more prepared for their futures, but are also more apt to be involved in their school and community and set a good example for other students in the school.
Ribt 6
2.
More diverse teaching strategies
reach various students and make learning more meaningful and even more important to them
by engaging students they are more apt to pay attention, come to school, do their homework, and achieve higher necap scores
Ribt 4
3.
Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
measurable/observable
should lead to improvement of teaching, student achievement, and/or improvement of learning environment.
should describe new knowledge or skills that you will acquire and how that knowledge/skill will affect the school/district setting.
linked to applicable Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards and elements, e.g. RIBTS 2.4.
In the space below describe you goal and plan in two paragraphs.
In the first paragraph, describe a rationale your professional development goal. This rationale should describe the goal, the personal need that it will address, and how this goal benefits your students and your perspective school.
I. Professional Development Goal
A goal I have to further develop my professional teaching career and persona is to learn about, and incorporate, more diverse methods of teaching. By constantly changing my teaching strategies I hope to not only reach, but engage the students in my classroom. I hope to make learning meaningful for each individual student and for them to see how the content relates to them. If every student actually is curious about and interested in the material I am teaching, the entire learning experience is now an enjoyable one. I don't want my students to feel that coming to class is a burden, but rather an exciting investigation of what they're learning at the time. I believe I can achieve this by learning different ways to reach my students, and different effective methods of teaching the material besides notes. By relating the topic to them, students feel they are learning something important, and they'll be more inclined to come to school, pay attention, do their homework, and participate in class. All of these characteristics would result in students achieving higher grades in science class and thus further encouraging them to try hard and work for something. Motivated, deep thinking, hard working students mean higher science NECAP scores for the school, and also creates a caliber of students that can set good examples and serve as roll models for future students. These are the types of students that give back to the community. I will also be able to learn from my students based upon their misconceptions and questions. Students that are constantly inquiring about concepts, asking questions, and participating in the lessons I teach will give me this opportunity to learn from them. I want to be a facilitator, rather than a dictator, and can fulfill that roll by understanding where the confusion is. All this will allow me to evolve my teaching strategies through the years based on the needs of the different students I encounter. The questions they ask can be used to guide discussions, and create lessons that further investigate related topics that interest my students. As I base my teaching on their needs hopefully the students will get the sense that I care about them and a sense of mutual respect will blossom.
Part of learning different ways to teach and facilitate diverse learners infers that I need to further develop my knowledge of what a diverse learner means. I understand that students learn better through different ways and methods but additionally, there are those that need activities to be modified, rather that solely accommodating their learner need. Some students have health issues, learning disabilities, and physical disabilities that limit the ways certain material can be presented. Part of developing my diverse teaching methods requires me to adapt lessons and activities towards students with such disabilties. For this reason a chunk of my goal is geared towards reaching lower level students who have disabilities. My goal is to hold these students to high expectancies to the best of their ability by using effective, and diverse teaching methods.
Now that you have a PD goal, think about what type of learning opportunities you will participate in to address your needs. Use these links to investigate learning options:
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
II. Professional Development Plan
Keeping my goal in mind of developing diverse teaching methods, I recognize that there is a surplus of opportunities in the professional field that is geared towards sharing this realm of knowledge with other teachers. In order to reach my goal I plan to attend various professional development opportunities to gain knowledge in the areas I wish to enhance. Some opportunities I've come across that I feel will help me reach this goal are "Blended Learning and Technology for Teachers", and "Using Tough Technology to Inspire and Motivate Learners" to learn how to utilize different technologies to provide different types of information, and also develop my knowledge on how to use such technologies. High school students in 2012 are more familiar and comfortable with technology than ever, so why not use such technology to make sense of difficult content? I believe both of these opportunities would teach me how to incorporate technological methods that would anchor students understanding of the content area. Using technology such as vernier probes, the computers, ipads, digital cameras, etc... allows students the freedom to learn and present assignments in a way that best shows off their abilities. Also, using technology often allows for more interactive learning, where the students are involved and engaged.
Another opportunity that sparked my interest is "Self-Regulation in Children: Keeping the Body, Mind, and Emotions on Task in Children with Autism, AD". This would allow me to gain knowledge about and techniques to use in the classroom in order to meet the needs of many diverse students. Understanding individual learner's needs, I will be able to gear my instruction, or at least modify it in a way that would make sense to these learners.
Teachers in Rhode Island currently maintain their certification by showing evidence of continuous professional development. Creating a personal PD plan is a unit-wide assignment in the School of Education for all student teachers. The steps below are designed to guide you through this process so that we can complete it efficiently.
Formulate a professional development goal based the needs that you have identified. This goal should be:
In the space below describe you goal and plan in two paragraphs.
In the first paragraph, describe a rationale your professional development goal. This rationale should describe the goal, the personal need that it will address, and how this goal benefits your students and your perspective school.
I. Professional Development Goal
A goal I have to further develop my professional teaching career and persona is to learn about, and incorporate, more diverse methods of teaching. By constantly changing my teaching strategies I hope to not only reach, but engage the students in my classroom. I hope to make learning meaningful for each individual student and for them to see how the content relates to them. If every student actually is curious about and interested in the material I am teaching, the entire learning experience is now an enjoyable one. I don't want my students to feel that coming to class is a burden, but rather an exciting investigation of what they're learning at the time. I believe I can achieve this by learning different ways to reach my students, and different effective methods of teaching the material besides notes. By relating the topic to them, students feel they are learning something important, and they'll be more inclined to come to school, pay attention, do their homework, and participate in class. All of these characteristics would result in students achieving higher grades in science class and thus further encouraging them to try hard and work for something. Motivated, deep thinking, hard working students mean higher science NECAP scores for the school, and also creates a caliber of students that can set good examples and serve as roll models for future students. These are the types of students that give back to the community. I will also be able to learn from my students based upon their misconceptions and questions. Students that are constantly inquiring about concepts, asking questions, and participating in the lessons I teach will give me this opportunity to learn from them. I want to be a facilitator, rather than a dictator, and can fulfill that roll by understanding where the confusion is. All this will allow me to evolve my teaching strategies through the years based on the needs of the different students I encounter. The questions they ask can be used to guide discussions, and create lessons that further investigate related topics that interest my students. As I base my teaching on their needs hopefully the students will get the sense that I care about them and a sense of mutual respect will blossom.
Part of learning different ways to teach and facilitate diverse learners infers that I need to further develop my knowledge of what a diverse learner means. I understand that students learn better through different ways and methods but additionally, there are those that need activities to be modified, rather that solely accommodating their learner need. Some students have health issues, learning disabilities, and physical disabilities that limit the ways certain material can be presented. Part of developing my diverse teaching methods requires me to adapt lessons and activities towards students with such disabilties. For this reason a chunk of my goal is geared towards reaching lower level students who have disabilities. My goal is to hold these students to high expectancies to the best of their ability by using effective, and diverse teaching methods.
Based on what you have found out, write a 1-2 paragraph narrative outlining at least two ways (PD categories) you will engage in engage in by the end of your first year of teaching. For each activity, explain how you think it will address the need that you have identified.
II. Professional Development Plan
Keeping my goal in mind of developing diverse teaching methods, I recognize that there is a surplus of opportunities in the professional field that is geared towards sharing this realm of knowledge with other teachers. In order to reach my goal I plan to attend various professional development opportunities to gain knowledge in the areas I wish to enhance. Some opportunities I've come across that I feel will help me reach this goal are "Blended Learning and Technology for Teachers", and "Using Tough Technology to Inspire and Motivate Learners" to learn how to utilize different technologies to provide different types of information, and also develop my knowledge on how to use such technologies. High school students in 2012 are more familiar and comfortable with technology than ever, so why not use such technology to make sense of difficult content? I believe both of these opportunities would teach me how to incorporate technological methods that would anchor students understanding of the content area. Using technology such as vernier probes, the computers, ipads, digital cameras, etc... allows students the freedom to learn and present assignments in a way that best shows off their abilities. Also, using technology often allows for more interactive learning, where the students are involved and engaged.Another opportunity that sparked my interest is "Self-Regulation in Children: Keeping the Body, Mind, and Emotions on Task in Children with Autism, AD". This would allow me to gain knowledge about and techniques to use in the classroom in order to meet the needs of many diverse students. Understanding individual learner's needs, I will be able to gear my instruction, or at least modify it in a way that would make sense to these learners.